


let's be the villains

by andthentheybow



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Character Study, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Morally Ambiguous Character, no beta we die like the stupid block men, this is that, whatever the opposite of a redemption arc is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-12
Updated: 2020-12-12
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:07:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28034394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andthentheybow/pseuds/andthentheybow
Summary: they all wonder if they’re the villain of the story. here’s a hint: if you think you might be the villain, you probably are.there are no heroes in war, not really. they will learn this lesson the hard way.
Relationships: Clay | Dream & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Floris | Fundy & Wilbur Soot, No Romantic Relationship(s), Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit, Wilbur Soot & Phil Watson
Comments: 10
Kudos: 68





	let's be the villains

**Author's Note:**

> this is like. eleven character studies rolled into one. i told myself i would never use the hurt no comfort tag and now look at me.

in this world, there are no gods. there are only men, men who are doomed to die, men who are doomed to forget the past and let history repeat itself. in this world, there are no kings. there are only those who claim power as their own and those who give crowns as freely as coins being passed from hand to hand. in this world, there are no victors. a world doomed to constantly be at war has no room for heroes.

they have all wondered, at one time or another, if they are the villain of the story. some of them are. some of them aren’t. everyone has a different opinion, because that’s just the way it  _ is _ . villains to some, heroes to others.

there are no heroes in war, not really. they will learn this lesson the hard way.

-/-|-\\-

dream knows damn well that he is the villain. he is the one that started this world, and he will be the one to end it. in another universe, he bemoans the roles he plays, the roles that others force upon him. in this world, he takes the mantle of villain and places it on his head like a crown. seeing the pain in their eyes is what fuels him, talking them up to the ledge is what drives him, burning their hard work to the ground is what keeps him going.

he enjoys it. there is a fire burning in dream’s chest, so who is he to quench it? you cannot fight fire with fire unless you want to create a brighter blaze, and dream wants to burn the whole world down.

he tries playing the hero, just for a little bit. but he always comes back to the stacks of dynamite and the flint and steel and the whispered words into the ears of those that don’t know he’s there. (and in another world, he just wants the war to end. that is not this world. in this world, he’s the one that keeps it going, time and time again.)

he knows what they call him. manipulative. cruel. tyrant. dragon. he accepts their titles with ease and grace; there is no killing the dragon, not in this world, because  _ he _ is the dragon. this world is  _ his _ . and like a dragon with its treasure, he will not let them take his world from him. he will kill them first.

dream knows he is the villain. why wouldn’t he be?

-/-|-\\-

eret feels like the one thing they’re good for is their words. they try and make people feel loved, feel important, feel like they matter. they try to be supportive, to be kind, but in the end, it always feels like they’re just trying to redeem themself.

and what does it matter? of course they want redemption; everyone wants redemption. they know they made a mistake, and they know that some people will never forgive them for it. others already have.

phil tells them later that wilbur’s last words before he blew up manberg were “it was never meant to be.”

their last statement before destroying their friends was “it was never meant to be.”

and they’re both right. maybe it wasn’t. maybe l’manberg was never supposed to happen. maybe they were supposed to cave to dream’s wishes. but it did, and they didn’t. eret made their choices, and now they will suffer the consequences. but they will not stop seeking redemption.

they were the villain once. they don’t want to be the villain again.

-/-|-\\-

techno doesn’t care if he’s the villain or not. he doesn’t give a single flying fuck about pretty much anything except his morals and maybe phil. when it comes to l’manberg and dream and everything, he just. doesn’t. care.

call him apathetic (he doesn’t care about that, either). l’manberg is just another blip on the timeline of the blood god, just another city to conquer and government to overthrow. he thrives off of power but hates those who have it. he’s violent and he doesn’t believe in anything other than himself.

he doesn’t care if he’s the villain. he doesn’t care if he has to betray his brothers. he cares when he listens to schlatt, lets himself get peer pressured into killing tubbo.

something that most people forget but that techno never can: it took two shots to kill the kid. he’s heard screams like that before. he’ll hear screams like that again. and he knows damn well that it makes a lot of people see him as the bad guy, and when it comes to that, he just. doesn’t. care.

he knows what happens to heroes. if he’s the villain, then so be it.

-/-|-\\-

sapnap is made of fire and anger and everything red. he ties the bandana around his forehead and draws his sword and flint and steel and he laughs. his eyes burn red with dancing flames and he watches it burn and he feels nothing.

dream tells tommy that he cares about nothing except the discs. tommy tells sapnap that dream doesn’t care. and he’s right, isn’t he? the kid is right. sapnap has been serving a man that cares about nothing except power for so long that he’s become blind to it.

so he takes george and leaves, because they’ve both been hurt too much by the man they thought was their best friend. they make a new country and they watch dream manipulate tommy and they do nothing. sapnap does nothing.

he won’t bend to dream’s will anymore. he won’t fight wars on dream’s behalf. he won’t fight wars  _ against _ dream to try and get a little bit of attention. dream griefs his tower and expects him to play nice. why should he play nice when dream never has?

if refusing to be used as just another weapon makes him the bad guy, then he guesses he’s the fucking bad guy.

-/-|-\\-

tubbo exiles his best friend. it’s the worst decision he’s ever had to make and he does it anyways, because he has fought for this nation for so fucking long and if tommy isn’t going to do anything but hurt them, then he has to go.

he has put everything into l’manberg. he died in the first war and he died in the second and he is not going to die again. he’s not! he won’t let himself. but he has given everything to this country, and nobody will take that away from him.

he didn’t want to be the president. he still doesn’t. but that is the role that was thrust upon him, so he’ll rest it on his shoulders like atlas holding up the world. it’s heavy, but he’ll manage.

he asks himself if he’s the bad guy. he thinks that if he needs to ask himself that question, then he probably is. and he hates it, but that’s how it goes. atlas was a titan and the gods gave him the burden of the world. tubbo is a child and the adults gave him the burden of a country that only knows how to be at war.

is he the bad guy? he’s just trying to do what’s best. he doesn’t want to be the bad guy. but he thinks he might be.

-/-|-\\-

quackity doesn’t know what he is. he doesn’t know where he stands. he runs against wilbur because he feels like wilbur is going to make a shit president. an excellent general, but a shit president. and he was right, wasn’t he, because wilbur goes fucking crazy and blows it all to hell.

l’manberg is wilbur’s symphony. it’s always been wilbur’s symphony. when schlatt takes over as the conductor, things start falling apart. they fall slower than quackity would’ve anticipated, but they fall nonetheless.

it’s when tubbo plans his own execution that quackity begins to realize he might be becoming the bad guy. he removes himself from that situation as quickly as possible, and they all forgive him, but sometimes he wonders if it’s too late. if he can ever redeem himself.

he doesn’t think he wants to be the villain. bad guy, maybe. ambiguously moral, sure. but the villain? the true villain? no. the true villain is something more than dream or wilbur or schlatt. the true villain whispers in their ears and tells them to seek out power that has never been theirs. whoever controls l’manberg controls the world.

quackity doesn’t know if he wants to control l’manberg. he doesn’t know if wants to be the villain. he doesn’t know a lot of things.

he does know that while they may not be the true villains, none of them are the heroes.

-/-|-\\-

fundy is made of broken bits and snarling teeth. he comes from a family whose history is questionable at best and completely unknown at worst. he is raised in a time of war and never seems to be able to find peace. he was born in l’manberg and sometimes he thinks he’ll die there, too.

presidents come and go. his father comes and goes. every time he is shoved to the side, and he finds that he doesn’t hate it. he turns spy and finds that he doesn’t hate it. he burns down the flag and tears down the walls and finds that he  _ doesn’t hate it _ .

does that make him the bad guy? maybe. maybe not. he doesn’t care. fundy was born into war and he’ll die in war, too, so why shouldn’t he do the things he doesn’t hate? tearing down the walls feels like a new beginning, feels like making l’manberg more free. burning down the flag hurts, a little bit, hearing niki scream hurts, but he knows it’s a sign. a sign that they are no longer bound by declarations written by men that have been exiled.

does that make him the bad guy? maybe. he finds that he doesn’t care.

-/-|-\\-

schlatt doesn’t give a shit about any of this. he wants power. he wants to be feared. he wants to drink himself to death, because why the hell wouldn’t he? he’s not about to let himself get killed in some fucking coup d’etat, he’s not like that. he doesn’t actually give a shit about war and independence and tyranny.

he gives a shit about power. he gives a shit about watching wilbur and tommy run, about the fear in tubbo’s eyes, about holding the kid over his friends like  _ oh, look at me, your right-hand man is  _ mine _ now _ . he gives a shit about the expensive alcohol stored under the white house because damn, that shit burns so good.

yeah, he’s the villain. what about it? he wears the title like a badge of honor, because he’s  _ damn _ good at it. he’s damn good at playing this role, so much so that he starts to forget it’s a role. maybe it never was. maybe he’s always been the bad guy.

so what? he’s fucking rocking it. and that’s what matters.

-/-|-\\-

phil knows damn well when he enters dream’s world how this is going to go. he will do his best, but wilbur will blow it all to hell anyways. phil has been desperately screaming at wilbur for what feels like ages, but when he finally confronts his son, he is quiet.

he does not want to be the bad guy. he has tried so hard to give his sons the best life possible. to make sure they grow up safe and happy and sane. and looking at wilbur, hearing techno and tommy screaming at each other in the background, he thinks he has failed.

he wanted his sons to be better than him. now all they have is a blown-up country and maniacal laughter and wilbur begs phil to kill him, hands him the sword to do it.

there is one thing about that day that most people seem to forget (but that phil never can): it took two hits for wilbur to go down. it took two swings of the sword for him to permanently kill his son.

he did not want to be the villain. he thinks he’s become one anyways.

-/-|-\\-

tommy is not the bad guy.

sometimes he wonders if he is. sometimes he wonders if that’s why he keeps getting exiled, if that’s why his best friend calls him selfish, if that’s why whatever gods exist allow every single person he has ever put an ounce of trust into has betrayed him.

tommy is not the bad guy. he is not the bad guy, but he is not the hero, either. techno says it himself; nothing good ever happens to heroes.

alright, then, maybe he is the hero. because nothing good has happened to him. he tries his best to remember the good instead of the bad, like ghostbur does, but it’s hard when all he can hear is the sizzling of lava and dream’s voice in his ear.

it would be easy, so easy, to sink to dream’s level. to team up with techno. to take them all down, to watch it all burn-

he’s fucking sick of being the hero. but he’s not going to let himself be the villain. maybe he’ll just  _ be _ .

-/-|-\\-

wilbur never thought he would be the villain. he is the bard, the president, the revolutionary. he sings of freedom, of independence, of the way things could be. he was young and hopeful once. he is not any longer.

in his madness there are moments of lucidity. he remembers old poems, about men who fell from grace and started wars and died over women or money or power. he does not need any outside influence to fall from grace; he’ll do it all by himself.

“are we the bad guys?” he wonders aloud, and tommy stares at him with poorly-disguised fear. they are in a ravine and the wind is howling and everything is perfectly still. his little brother is begging him to stop and he will not, because he was supposed to be the good guy, damn it, he was supposed to save them.

he rages and rampages and tears down the walls of the caves that hold him and still he cannot escape. if he is to be the villain, then he may as well accept it, may as well let himself travel down this path. he seeks out dream and his explosives and he laces his unfinished symphony with the destroying melody. 

and what a melody it is.

-/-|-\\-

there are no heroes in war, not really. theseus is merely a name, a myth. war is real, is painful. it’ll beat them down until there is nothing left, break them until there is nothing left to break, and in the end, the true villain is the battle itself.

they keep fighting. they will never stop fighting. in another world, they realize they are all up against the same thing, and they join together to stop the battle and the bloodshed and they are happy. they find peace, the one true hero, and the universe allows them to become the victors.

this is not that world.

**Author's Note:**

> comments/kudos/etc are always appreciated!
> 
> if you want to, come yell at me on twitter @andthentheybow :)


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